“I wish I could make you proud with this. I’m sorry.” My stomach sank and I really meant it, and I even knew how fucked all of this was but couldn’t stop the feeling. I was letting him down.
Cillian stepped back and crossed his arms. “Ye put a bullet in him and I’m proud.” He smiled at Aspen, and I turned a bit so I could see everyone. “I’ve got a partner in crime, someone who gets off on it as much as I do.”
“Hey, I like getting off,” I joked, forcing a smile.
“Ye’re stallin’,” Cillian said with a wink.
I glanced back at Aspen and walked closer to Luís, raising the gun in both hands. Aspen’s arms weren’t around me, but I could imagine their solid warmth as I moved until the gun hovered about an inch from Luís’s heart. He screamed and babbled, and for some reason I felt like I owed it to him to look into his eyes as I squeezed the trigger. There wasn’t much kick to the gun, and the bullet hole wasn’t large when it blossomed with blood on his chest. There was splatter behind him but not much in front. I let out a long, shaky breath as he glanced down. He stared at the hole, and I stared at him as red rivulets stained his shirt and poured down his chest. I stayed there, entranced by the life seeping from him, until he stopped struggling and the light left his eyes. My heart hammered so hard I rubbed at my chest and almost dropped the gun on the floor, except Cillian came to take it from my hand.
“Ye did good,” he murmured.
“You know, I coulda beat him to death in a ring and been fine with it. The gun... it seems unfair. Too easy.” A shiver rocked my body and I rubbed my arms.
Cillian snorted and shoved my shoulder lightly. “This is the end, ye muppet. We had our fight getting him here. He had his chance to kill us and didn’t take it. That’s his failing.”
I stared at the blood still dripping down Luís’s body as Cillian talked. I had trouble looking at anything else. Rowen grabbed my arm and tugged me back, brushing his hand over my cheek. “Come on, out of the way. We’ll have shite to do now.”
Aspen came over to stand near me with his hands stuffed in the pockets of his suit pants. “Quick. Through the heart. Relatively painless.”
“You guys already bloodied him up.” I shrugged, feeling embarrassed because I wasn’t sure if he was giving me hell or stating facts. Sometimes it was hard to tell with Aspen.
“Och aye,” Cillian said with a shark’s grin. He spun the body until it was twisted on the ropes suspending it, then let go so that Luís’s corpse revolved slowly, dripping blood in a circle.
“Bloody hell,” Rowen said. “Knock that shite off, ye’re makin’ a mess.”
Cillian chuckled.
Aspen tugged on my elbow until I turned toward him, then hauled me into his arms. He tilted my head back and cupped my chin, pressing his lips to mine. His dick was firm against my belly, and the barest swipe of his tongue into my mouth had me moaning. When he finally let me up for air a few minutes later, I laughed off some of my nerves.
“Is this my reward? Because I’m like a dog with a bone.” I thrust against his hip, and he sighed, narrowing his eyes at my bad joke. “You could definitely train me like this.”
Rowen groaned, pointing at Aspen’s disgruntled face. “He got ye, mate.”
Cillian hummed and pushed the body around to spin again, even though Rowen slapped his shoulder. “Aye. A good hard fuck is the reward I always give meself after this sort of thing.” He slid his gaze along my body... or maybe he was eyeing up Aspen. I couldn’t tell. Either way, my dick throbbed harder and I relieved some of the tension by rubbing against Aspen. I buried my face against his chest. This was so much better than that awful fucking night in the soap factory when I’d been alone. I had no idea what to say to anyone.
Aspen tightened his arms around me. “Ro, why don’t you take him upstairs. We have to deal with this shit.”
“No,” Rowen said sharply, and I was surprised, and maybe Aspen was, too, because he stiffened against me. “He should help prepare the body for disposal. Ye never know when ye might need to know how to do it. Last thing ye want is him figuring it out by himself in a hurry and getting nabbed by the cops. It’s part of the job.” He cleared his throat.
I nodded at him. “Okay. Sure. That makes sense.”
No one disagreed, so I helped them drag in sheets of plastic, and it was me who cut Luís down. The hollow thump his body made on the plastic-covered floor didn’t bother me as much as I thought it should. Maybe there was a bit of method to Rowen’s madness because the longer I was around the body, the more it became a piece of meat we were trying to get rid of rather than the remains of a person. By the time we had the body completely wrapped up, I was swearing at it under my breath like I would’ve at uncooperative furniture I was trying to move.
When we were finished with the body prep, a group of three men who worked at the mansion every day came in and took Luís out of the room and up the stairs. Anyone who didn’t know for sure what was under the layers of plastic wouldn’t be able to tell it was a corpse, and they didn’t hesitate to walk it out, presumably upstairs through the main areas of the house.
Aspen and Cillian were talking quietly together, and I tried to look like I knew what I was doing and felt okay, because it seemed as if everyone thought I should be fine, and I didn’t want to disappoint them again. Then Rowen came over and leaned his shoulder against mine, and I was shocked when he turned and knocked his forehead lightly against my temple.
“Why do you do this?” I asked quietly. “You don’t enjoy it.”
He shrugged, moving me, too, because he hadn’t stepped away. “It’s a way o’ life, isn’t it? I never would’ve left Ireland without it.” He glanced toward Cillian and gave me a smile. “Come on,” he said louder. “Let’s get out of here so the cleaning crew can come in and scrub it down.”
“Ye don’t wanna have Fallon do that, too?” Cillian asked, waggling his eyebrows like a jerk.
“Hey, I’m not a maid,” I grumped.
Rowen gave me a pissy look that made me extra proud of my bad joke, not that I wanted him mad. I was just jittery and had no other outlet. “No,” he said on a sigh. “His ribs are still not great. Another time. Cleaning enough that a cop can’t get nothin’ on ye is its own skill.” He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and led me out. We separated when I reached the door, and I went up the stairs ahead of him. We’d almost made it to the split staircase at the front of the house when someone whistled from the doorway to the dining room, making us all stop. Jamie Shannon walked toward us with a happy grin. His brown curls were everywhere, as if maybe he’d been on a motorcycle earlier.
“I heard ya got one of those little birdies who was singing secrets to the Southern border. Top notch work you’re doing to get the youngest Maher here in working order, Aspen. Always thinking around corners.” He beamed at everyone, and I tried to stand tall when his knowing look landed on me. “And good job, Fallon. Everyone likes to pretend it’s easy to be a Company man when your family is in the Company, but we each have to work for our place.” He frowned, but then his good humor was back in a flash. Hunter stood from where he’d been sitting on the right side of the white marble staircase. He walked down the stairs in a gray suit that was a shade lighter than Jamie’s.
